


Perks of the Job

by trekkiepirate



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Daisy is Adorable, Eggsy is Awkward, Harry Hart is a Little Shit, Jamal is a good bruv, M/M, Merlin is a Little Shit, Merlin's Sass Gives Me Life, Roxy isn't really in this, but she's a goddess nonetheless, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 00:18:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5353709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trekkiepirate/pseuds/trekkiepirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry makes it a point to never lie to himself, so he admits that he is absolutely, totally, bollocking mad about Eggsy. However, whenever Merlin or Roxy try to bring the subject up, he denies the charge vehemently. Harry is perfectly fine with lying to others.</p><p>AKA The Coffee Shop AU because why not</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perks of the Job

Harry Hart is not a particular fan of boredom. When his best mate, Merlin (a moniker that was most likely not his given name but, as Harry had never heard any schoolmaster or parent refer to him as anything else, was as good as), had first proposed the idea of a coffee shop Harry had been, as was his wont, a little shit.

“Isn't that rather boring?”

“Nonsense,” Merlin had said at the time, “there'll be a bakery portion as well so any downtime can be spent making pastries. Never a moment's idleness.”

And because Merlin was, in fact, his best mate, Harry had handed over a chunk of his inheritance and was given half-ownership of Perks of the Job.

Merlin had given him no input whatsoever on the name or Harry would have withdrawn his pounds in a heartbeat.

The shop flourished. Between Merlin's magical coffee skills (he claims it was a family trait shared by his cousin in Wales) and Harry's rather experimental tendencies in the kitchen, their coffee shop was often named a Best of London spot and as such, often had quite a steady stream of customers.

To keep overhead low, Harry and Merlin were often on hand in the shop. There were two other employees: Roxanne “call me Roxy” Morton who was a student at the college down the road, studying something that had to do with computers. She and Merlin could go on for ages speaking technobabble that made Harry's eyes glaze right over.

The other employee was Jamal, a boy from the council estates who'd begged the job so he wouldn't have to turn to drug peddling or hustling at the corner of Smith Street. He was a bright young man, if a little overly flirtatious with any female who walked through the doors. That number had included Roxy until she'd drove the steel toe of her boot into his bollocks. Since then he'd treated her like a goddess he was only worthy to serve. Harry sometimes wonders if that was her aim all along.

There is, however, another small, microscopic, slight problem that employing Jamal presents. That is the presence of his best friends, more particularly one of those said friends, Eggsy Unwin.

Through the many and varied conversations he has overheard, Harry has gathered that Eggsy had done a short stint in the Marines, but had given it up for some reason and was now living with his mother and a stepfather, the topic of which was avoided like the plague, who was responsible for the fact that Eggsy wore a jacket over his polo shirts no matter how hot the weather outside or how toasty the shop would get.

The boy's accent hid a deep intelligence and a fierce loyalty to his mates. Harry also picked up that Eggsy used to be a gymnast (and oh the ways that bit of knowledge had affected certain nighttime thoughts), Olympic level material until aforementioned stepfather had stopped the training because of his own idiotic notions of masculinity.

All in all, while Ryan, Jamal's other friend, seems a perfectly nice lad, it's Eggsy and his beautiful face that draws Harry's gaze.

Harry makes it a point to never lie to himself, so he admits that he is absolutely, totally, bollocking mad about Eggsy. However, whenever Merlin or Roxy try to bring the subject up, he denies the charge vehemently. Harry is perfectly fine with lying to others.

To deal with this and keep from making a complete fool of himself the way he did in the first year of Eggsy's loud, cheerful presence, Harry moved the schedules around until he and Jamal were never in the coffee shop for the same shift. There was still some overlap and Eggsy remained a beautiful smile in Harry's peripheral as he handed the apron over to Jamal, but for the most part the avoidance was working. Harry most often had shifts with Merlin and the work kept him busy enough that he didn't often have spare time to think of Eggsy.

Unless it was pissing down rain like it was that afternoon. The lunch rush has finished and there wouldn't be an evening rush until the local businesses turned out their employees in need of a caffeine boost so they didn't fall asleep on the way back home.

Merlin was at the computer, building a website to sell coffee blends and organize catering for business meetings.

Harry had two pies and a few sheets of pasties in the oven and nothing to occupy his mind. “Merlin?”

A hum came that sounded vaguely affirmative.

“Make me a latte.”

Without looking up from the screen, Merlin picked up a coffee stirrer and flicked his wrist elegantly in Harry's direction. “Ego reformabit corpus.” He peeked up with a deadpan expression on his face. “Poof. You're a latte.”

“You are a little shit,” Harry said.

“I believe you have a sash in your downstairs cupboard that confers that honour upon your own head.”

“Ah yes, The Day James and Percival Were Banned From Craft Supplies. I remember it well.” Harry shuddered.

Merlin smiled at the memory of their university days. “Besides, were I to be a little shit, I would have said, 'Latte. You're a poof.”

The bell over the door jingled and Harry was about to throw a parade at the opportunity to do something useful (that was not murdering his business partner) when he saw who was there.

Eggsy had a small child on his hip and was trying to single-handly fold up the child's stroller.

“Allow me,” Harry said, moving before his brain fully came online. He crossed the shop quickly and folded the stroller, awkwardly tucking it into the umbrella holder by the door.

“Thanks, bruv,” Eggsy said. “It's pouring out there. You mind if we dry off a bit?”

Harry smiled. “Only if you introduce me to this little one,” he nodded at the girl, staring up at him with eyes that looked like Eggsy's own. “Yours?”

Eggsy shifted her to his other hip and shrugged. “Nah, well not like that. This is my little sister, Daisy. Can you say hi to Mr. Harry, Dais?”

“Hi,” the girl waved.

“Hello, Miss Daisy,” Harry said, taking her waving hand and shaking it gently. “I expect the rain rather ruined your day out with your brother, didn't it?”

The girl nodded and began to sing, “Rain rain, go away. Come again some other day.”

Harry laughed and noticed in the periphaery of his vision that Eggsy's eyes were glued to him. “Quite so. Well, I feel you deserve some cocoa and something hot to eat, hmm?”

“Oh,” Eggsy said, dropping his eyes to the floor. “No, we uh, we're just here til the storm passes then we're be out of your ha-” he dared a glance at Merlin. “Off your hands.”

“You'll be here for hours then,” Merlin said, looking up from the screen in front of him. “I've just checked the weather forecast. Go on and have something to eat.”

“We're fine,” Eggsy said, resolutely ignoring the growling of his stomach as it belied those words. “I've got half a bag of animal crackers for Dais left. She can nibble on those.”

Harry tilted his head. “Eggsy, I've seen you put away most of a whole pie by yourself and still pick off Ryan's plate. You can't object to the food we make here.”

“Oh fu- oh god,” Eggsy shuffled his feet. “Uh, I didn't plan for us to end up here; I've only got enough money for the bus back home. We can't afford the prices here.” His cheeks burned red and, while Harry had to admit the look was very fetching on the young man, the reason for it being there was not.

Harry nodded. “Ahhh, so those other times you come in and eat everything on the display shelf, Jamal's not been charging you has he?”

Eggsy looked up at Harry, fierce protectiveness in his gaze as he hugs his sister closer to him. “I ain't saying nothing. You don't got a single reason to fire Jamal.”

“Of course not,” Harry said. “I'd have to be a pretty poor shop owner-”

“Co-owner,” Merlin interjected,

“Co-owner,” Harry ceded, “if I didn't notice that there were never any leftover pastries on the days you and Ryan come to visit Jamal at work nor that Jamal would then more often than not, slip his portion of the tip jar into the till.”

Eggsy blinked, the defensiveness of his posture melting away. “You knew?”

Harry nodded. “Indeed. That reminds me that I must have a talk with Jamal about keeping his tips. As all leftover pastries come home with me, he is doing my waistline a great favour by making sure they are eaten by others.”

“Your waistline looks plenty all right to me,” Eggsy said, clapping the hand not holding his sister over his mouth a second later.

Daisy, unaware of her brother's mortification, adds her hands to the back of his and giggles in the most charming way.

If Harry hadn't already known just how deep he was in with Eggsy Unwin, the scene in front of him would be the clincher.

“Saints preserve us,” Merlin groused, already up and coming over to gesture that Eggsy should hand Daisy over to him. “Do you want to help me make some cocoa while your big brother and Mr. Harry make completely obvious confessions of mutual admiration at each other?”

At the word 'cocoa' Daisy was already lifting her arms towards Merlin, who picked her up with perfect ease from Eggsy's astonished hold. “Cocoa!”

“Yes, little dear. With a peppermint stick in the mugs for those of us who are not blind as bats,” Merlin grinned as he headed into the back room with Daisy clapping her hands giddily and chanting, “Cocoa cocoa cocoa”.

Left standing in front of each other, Harry and Eggsy turned to meet each other's gaze at the same time.

When they both looked away immediately, Harry groaned internally at how this was not meant to be a romantic comedy in the cinema. “Was Merlin just reading too much into your statement?” Harry asked.

Eggsy scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, he said mutual, right? Like... you like me?”

“Yes, Eggsy,” Harry said. “I like you quite a bit.”

“But you haven't been around much,” Eggsy pointed out. “Past few months, I've barely seen you. Used to see you every single time you and Jamal had the same shift.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “Did you come into the shop on those days on purpose? To see me?”

Eggsy shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, most posh shops like this wouldn't have ever hired Jamal, let alone let us all keep a table during his shift and chat to him. And,” the tips of his ears go red, “I liked listening to you talk to people about the stuff you baked. Like how your mum taught you and that you was using your gran's recipes.”

“So,” Harry said, “am I to conclude that you like me, as well?”

“Well duh,” Eggsy grinned up at Harry. “I'd have thought the waistline comment kinda made it clear. But I meant it, you're well fit.” He winked.

Harry grinned like a wolf. “And you're temptation on two legs. Especially when you mentioned your gymnast past.”

Eggsy's smile sharpened. “I may have let that slip on purpose.”

Thinking back over the past conversations he'd overheard, the penny dropped. “Eggsy, how old is Daisy?”

Taking a moment to process the change of subject Eggsy finally answered, “Three, next month.”

“You left the Marines when she was born, didn't you?”

Eggsy ducked his head. “Mum needed the extra help. Couldn't leave her with- Babies need a lot of attention.”

“That they do,” Harry said. “That you gave up your goals to take care of your family is admirable.” He reaches out and cups Eggsy's cheek in his hand.

“Can we stop talking about my family right before you're about to just snog me?” Eggsy closed his eyes and groaned and Harry couldn't wait to hear the sound again in a different context. “You was about to snog me, right?”

Harry let his eyes flit all over Eggsy's face. “Seeing as it's the middle of the day and we are not in private, yes Eggsy, just snogging you is what I was about to. Though I did plan to ask you to dinner tonight just before?”

“Yes, Harry,” Eggsy said. “To dinner and the snogging. Just to be clear.”

Without further ado, Harry laid his lips on Eggsy and immediately knew this was something he was going to want to do every day for the rest of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> In all honesty, the name Perks of the Job is an old one for me. I did a Torchwood fic (Janto) in my LiveJournal days called Perks of the Job, which was mostly canon, but seen through the eyes of the woman who ran the shop where Ianto bought all the team's coffee. I also used the name Perks for a coffee shop in my Wilde At Heart novels (title came from the bookshop run by the main family) I like puns only in the form of shop names. *shrugs*
> 
> Also, WHAT UP IANTO JONES REFERENCE! :)


End file.
